The Great Digital Microscope Build

For somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 in non-smartphone supplies, it’s a digital microscope that can take pictures and record video!

The kid measured and sanded, I power tooled (drilling through plexiglass without cracking it, even).

Setting the stage for the . . . specimen and camera stages.

There are definitely a few wiggly parts to this project , especially when it comes to lining up the laser pointer lens to the camera and figuring out focusing. But, hey, it wouldn’t be tinkering if there wasn’t a degree of troubleshooting.

When all was said and done, we had a sweet digital microscope on the cheap and for about 90 minutes of hard work time.

Leaf cells.

Dollar coin detail.

Salt crystals.

Tiny five, now mega-sized.

Sand paper.

And now that it’s all figured out, it’s on to really big fun of using time lapse to capture micro-world action.

In A Nutshell

I’m Becky, mom to Z and partner with J. I dig playing with words and ideas, taking way too many pictures, and hanging out in the woods, by salt water, and in bookshops – all in equal measure. And I’m a kick-ass cook.